Chicago Tribune

"World's Greatest Newspaper, the Chicago Tribune"
The Chicago Tribune was founded in 1847. Its first issue consisted of 400 copies that came off a hand press in a single rented room. In 1855, Joseph Medill, a young lawyer and newspaperman, came to Chicago from his native Ohio and bought a substantial interest in the Tribune. He acquired control of the company in 1874 and guided it until his death in 1899.

Medill's two grandsons, Robert McCormick and Joseph Patterson, took over leadership of the company in 1912. Construction of a newsprint mill in Thorold, Ontario, began in 1913 to provide paper for the Chicago Tribune. A century of family leadership, which started in with Joseph Medill in 1855, ended with the death of Robert McCormick, president of Tribune and publisher of the Chicago Tribune, in 1955.

The Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate was formed in 1933. Today, its successor, Tribune Media Services, is a leading national provider of content, services and advertising to newspapers and emerging media.

The Chicago Tribune was one of the first newspapers to use color, and in 1991, the Chicago Tribune became the first newspaper in the country to be made available online--through America Online.